A crowd gathered at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Dell Rapids Friday night as the sun began to tuck behind the horizon. They were they’re to honor those some of America’s bravest men and women with a “Light the Night” Ceremony.

Unlike the sun, which returned the following morning, thousands of men and women called to service during the last century never got another chance to shine in the United States.

Standing before both a U.S. and POW/MIA flag, Army National Guard Lt. Shane Skinner spoke of the 83,343 men and women who went missing or were taken prisoner in conflict.

“The conflict that my contemporaries are in have only yielded six prisoners of war and missing in action so I count myself very lucky,” he said.
World War II accounted for 73,661 of the missing and imprisoned American soldiers.

Next to Skinner, Dell Rapids American Legion Auxiliary President Teresa Huntimer and Auxiliary Chaplain Evelyn Huntimer, a clothed table was symbolically set.

A white cloth represented the purity of the soldiers’ willingness to respond to a call to conflict, a rose represented the families and loved ones at home waiting for the soldiers’ return, salt on the plate represented tears and a glass was inverted because the missing cannot make a toast.

“Let us pray to the supreme commander that all our comrades will soon be back within our arms,” Teresa Huntimer said.

After the ceremony, 175 luminaries were lit, each donning the name of a local servicemen.